


That's what friends are for

by ShadeDuelist



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Spaghetti
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 10:09:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5581705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadeDuelist/pseuds/ShadeDuelist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(just a short something that I found myself wanting to write)</p><p>Undyne trains Papyrus so he can become a member of the Royal Guard.  But it's pretty much hopeless... and Undyne finds herself wanting to keep her friend as pure-hearted as he is.  No big plot, just floof and more floof.  And spaghetti, naturally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That's what friends are for

“Ugh...  T-this isn’t working...”, Undyne said as she thrust her magical spear tip-first into the ground, breathing hard.  Her friend Papyrus looked at her in confusion, wondering why she’d stopped in the middle of their fight training, something that he _voiced_ the next second.

“UNDYNE, YOU SEEM TO HAVE RELINQUISHED YOUR BATTLE STANCE!! DOES THIS MEAN OUR TRAINING FOR THE DAY IS OVER?!!”

“The fighting part of our training’s over, Papyrus, ya punk.”, Undyne said meekly, softly shaking her head when the skeleton saw fit to grin almost happily at her.

“WOWIE, EARLIER THAN NORMAL!! I MUST BE GETTING BETTER!! WAIT UNTIL I INFORM SANS OF THIS, HE WILL BE EVER SO PROUD OF HIS BROTHER, THE GRRRRREAT PAPYRUS!!  NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!”  Truth be told, Undyne caught herself thinking, Papyrus was _very strong_ , his attacks causing her a lot of trouble to overcome - when they were training, she had to genuinely make an effort to evade his white attacks, and the blue attacks almost invariably got her every time - and they were certainly _both_ getting a very thorough workout out of their training together, but... but Papyrus lacked the incentive to hurt her.  Or the training dummies.  Or really _anyone_ that he met.  Aaron?  He gladly held a flexing contest with him.  Woshua?  He politely washed his hands _twice_ just to appease the monster.  Temmie, the only monster that was able to give Undyne a hard time?  Papyrus greeted them as old friends and launched into lengthy conversations with them over their history and heroes.  She had the fighting drive, ready to accept any and all challenges that life threw her way; Papyrus had a drive to befriend others, no matter who they were or how odd others thought them to be.  ‘Must be ‘cause the punk got picked on so much when he was younger...’, the half-fish mused absent-mindedly, only focusing on Papyrus again when he looked at her in anticipation.

“U-uh, yeah, I’m real sorry, punk, but _repeat that_ , please, I couldn’t hear you ‘cause I was over here, being too awesome!”

“I ASKED YOU, UNDYNE, WHETHER YOU WOULD MIND ME STAYING A LITTLE LONGER?  SANS IS PROBABLY GOING TO GRILLBY’S FOR DINNER ANYWAY AND IT HAS BEEN A VERY LONG TIME SINCE WE SPENT SOME QUALITY ‘BESTIES’ TIME TOGETHER!”, Papyrus reiterated, and now Undyne smiled.  Her friend really was too good for the world they lived in, too pure for the job he so badly wanted.  She’d hate to see him jaded by life... and so, she suddenly found herself thinking, maybe her job as a friend was to protect him from damage like that, damage that couldn’t be undone anymore.

“Heh, sure, Papyrus!  Hey, if Sans doesn’t eat with ya, why don’t we go to my place and hang out a bit?  You can stay for dinner!”

“OH, WOW!!  I-IS YOUR DINNER... SPAGHETTI, BY ANY CHANCE?”, Papyrus asked, prompting a chuckle from Undyne.

“’COURSE it’s spaghetti, punk!  What else would your bestie Undyne make you, huh?   _HUH?!!”_ She jumped up, grabbed the skeleton’s neck in a tight hold - though not too tight so as to not cause him discomfort - and then rubbed the knuckles of her right hand over her friend’s skull.  The effect was instantaneous: yelping and squirming in her hold though not managing to break free from it, Papyrus spoke softly.

“U-UNDYNE, PLEASE DO NOT ‘NOOGIE’ THE SKELETON...”

“Oh _yeah_? You don’t like it?  Well, then _stop me_ , Papyrus!!”, she challenged him loudly, and... again, she had to let go of him.  It wasn’t that her friend didn’t try to break free or to stop her from embarrassing him, but he just... couldn’t muster up the will to _harm_ anyone, not even unintentionally.  He was just like Asgore had been when he’d trained her: big and strong and with a heart as soft and warm as well-cooked spaghetti.  Sighing, she gave him a warm, toothy grin and nudged her head towards her house.  “C’mon, Papyrus, let’s head over to my place, I’ll bet you’re super hungry.”

“...UNDYNE?  MAY I ASK YOU A QUESTION?”, Papyrus asked as they were walking up to the small, fish-shaped house she’d built in the quietest part in Waterfall: from his tone, the half-fish could tell that the question was a serious one, and when she turned around, she could see a faint dark blue sheen around his cheekbones, the skeleton’s imitation of a blush, she was sure.  “...UNDYNE, HOW DID YOU BECOME A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD?  YOU ARE VERY, VERY GOOD AT YOUR JOB, BUT WHAT DID YOU DO TO PROVE YOUR METTLE?”

“...Heh.”  Undyne couldn’t help but chuckle and stop walking, instead leaning against one of the cave walls and motioning for her friend to do the same.  This was a long story...  “This goes back to the days when I was just old enough to control my magic.  Back in the days where the queen still ruled alongside the king.”

“THAT IS... BEFORE EVEN SANS WAS BORN.”, Papyrus said in awe, prompting Undyne to nod.  She was aware of the fact that Sans was younger than her, even if his soul seemed to be way, way older.  It was one of the oddities of the skeleton brothers she’d quickly learnt not to think too much about.

“Yeah.  Well, things were simple back then - or so it seemed.  King Asgore and Queen Toriel ruled together, their two children Asriel and Chara were growing into nice youths... but then, all of a sudden, Chara fell ill.  Nobody knew what of, and not even the Royal Scientist could stop the progress of the disease: the adoptive child of our king and queen died.  She’d asked to be buried among golden flowers, but of course flowers can’t bloom in this darkness, except the echo flowers, but they’re kinda silvery... and I’m not sure if they’re actually _flowers_ , to be honest...  Anyway, the king and queen were deeply grieving, and suddenly... suddenly Asriel, their own son, disappeared.  He’d absorbed Chara’s soul and he took her body with him.  ...Promise you won’t tell anyone about this, okay?”, she asked, looking Papyrus dead in the skeletal eye, and he nodded, his expression oddly morose.  “...I wasn’t in the Royal Guard yet, but I figured I needed to keep an eye on ol’ Asgore, see if he wouldn’t try something silly like _going to the surface to fulfill Chara’s dying wish_...  Didn’t figure I’d stand in front of Asriel instead of the ol’ King Fluffybuns, though.  Asriel... was just a teenager, really, just a kid barely out of his mother’s embrace, but he _had a human soul_.  He was strong, stronger even than his father, and he was _determined as hell_.  But so was I.  I wasn’t about to let anyone go up to the world of the humans and expose themselves to their evil!  He asked me to step aside, and I refused; he _commanded_ me to step aside and I refused.  So then, he took a swipe at me with his claws and... I fought Prince Asriel.  He fought to kill, I could tell.  He hit me badly - right in the eye.”

“S-SO THAT IS WHY YOU LOST YOUR LEFT EYE, UNDYNE?  YOU LOST IT TO PRINCE ASRIEL?!”, Papyrus asked, and Undyne sighed, raising her eyepatch to show the disfigured empty space where her left eye had once sat and the ragged scar where scales still refused to grow back.  Then, however, Papyrus’ bony hand patted her shoulder kindly, gently, and he spoke up again in softer tones.  “...STANDING UP TO THE FUTURE RULER OF THESE LANDS MUST HAVE TAKEN ALL OF YOUR COURAGE AND STRENGTH, UNDYNE, AND ONLY ONE AS STRONG AND DETERMINED AS YOU COULD HAVE STOOD A CHANCE!!”

“Yeah, that’s what King Fluffybuns said, too.  He said it wasn’t my fault that I hadn’t been able to stop Asriel, and that he was happy I’d survived the fight at any rate.  So he made me a member of the Royal Guard - and a year after that, after Gerson quit his job and went to work in that dank shop of his down the road, he made me Captain.  Said I was the best for the job - always ready for the fight!”  For a while, things were silent between the two of them, and then Undyne smiled again, looking at Papyrus.  “...Papyrus, you remind me of myself back when I fought Asriel - only difference is that _you_ ’re just a big _weenie_!”

“AH, YES!  YOU COULD NEVER BE A WEENIE, UNDYNE, YOU ARE FAR TOO MAGNIFICENT AND TERRIFIC FOR THAT!!”, her friend said with a big grin that had Undyne laughing.

“Heh, yeah!!”

“UNDYNE, THERE IS ONE OTHER THING I FIND MYSELF WONDERING ABOUT, THOUGH...”, Papyrus followed up, now slightly blushing again - it caused the half-fish fighter to draw up an eyebrow in wonder, trying to consider what her friend could be thinking about.

“Yeah, ask away, punk!”

“W-WELL... AS TERRIFIC AND MAGNIFICENT AS YOU ARE, YOU DON’T SEEM TO PAY MUCH ATTENTION TO FINDING YOURSELF A SPECIAL SOMEONE!  I, THE GRRRRREAT PAPYRUS, FIND THAT A SHAME!  YOU DESERVE SOMEONE THAT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL HAPPY AND WHOLE!!”

“Huh?  W-where’s all _this_ comin’ from all of a sudden, ya punk?!”, Undyne asked loudly, blushing a sickly green.  “I don’t need a ‘special someone’!!  I’m doing fine right now!!  I-I got _friends_ that make me happy!  Like _you_ , Papyrus, ya big ol’ _wimp_!!  N-not that I like you like _that!!_ ”, she quickly tacked on before the skeleton got the wrong idea, but fortunately the skeleton nodded.

“YES, THAT IS FORTUNATE, IT WOULD BE VERY HARD TO HAVE TO DISAPPOINT YOU - FOR I, TOO, AM NOT ROMANTICALLY INTERESTED IN YOU, UNDYNE!!  ONLY PLATONICALLY INTERESTED!!  ...BUT YOU DESERVE SOMEONE THAT GIVES YOU ROMANTIC ATTENTION NONETHELESS!  SOMEONE THAT IS ABLE TO SEE HOW GREAT YOU TRULY ARE!  SOMEONE THAT ACCEPTS YOUR STRENGTH AND DETERMINATION AS THE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU SHINE!!”  All in all, Undyne couldn’t help pondering on those words, no matter how badly she wanted to steer the conversation away from the current topic.  Because, truth be told, there _was_ someone like that, someone that lavished her with adoration and cute, gentle affection... someone that she met so very frequently scavenging the garbage dump for good weapons or armor polish for her armor... someone she liked spending all those hours with...  Seeing Papyrus’ gentle look, she grinned toothily and decided to push aside those thoughts in favor of finally steering the conversation back to more important matters.

“Heh, thanks for the concern, Papyrus, but first things first - right about now, I deserve some _dinner_!!”

“AH YES, YOUR UNPARALLELLED SPAGHETTI!!”, the skeleton said joyfully, clapping his hands and looking once again like the kid that he’d been when Undyne had first met him, sitting at the entrance to the Waterfall crying about the other monsters picking on him just because he was new to the town.  She’d cheered him up by telling him about how she’d been picked on years before and told him to ‘show ‘em how tough you are, punk’, returning a month later on her regular patrol to find him waiting for her with stories about how he’d showed the mean monsters what he was made of and how he’d been left alone since then.  She’d returned every month, seeing him grow up fast, and he’d slowly become a friend.  Then, once he was able to properly control his magic, now three or four years ago, she’d found him standing in front of her door one night asking if he could be a member of the Royal Guard as well - since it was midnight, she’d told him to go home and shut the door on him, but when he turned out to still be standing there the next morning, she’d relented and had started training him.  But no matter how hard she pushed him, he always just... kept thinking of how to befriend people and how to be liked.  For the second time that day, Undyne found herself thinking that she needed to preserve that innocense and simplicity in her friend.  “UNDYNE, ONE DAY, YOU WILL HAVE TO TEACH ME HOW TO COOK AS GRRRREATLY AS YOU DO!!”

...And maybe she didn’t have to look all that hard for a way to do that.

“Well, punk, if you want... I can teach you how to _cook_ instead of teaching ya how to _beat up humans_ , you got that down pretty well anyway...”, she said, grinning - and of course Papyrus answered that offer with his usual cheer.

“R-REALLY?!!  WOWIE...  I WOULD _LOVE_ FOR YOU TO TEACH ME HOW TO COOK!!  YOUR SPAGHETTI IS AMAZING!  EVEN SANS ADMITS AS MUCH!!  AND IT WOULD ALLOW US TO SPEND MUCH MORE QUALITY ‘BESTIE’ TIME THAN FIGHT TRAINING!!!”, he said, clearly holding himself back so he didn’t actually jump in the air in joy.  Grinning broadly, she motioned for them to walk to her house, while Papyrus spoke eagerly: “WITH YOU TEACHING ME HOW TO COOK, I WILL BECOME AN _UNPARALLELLED_ SPAGHETTORE!”

Undyne laughed hard enough to startle her neighbors at that.


End file.
